My Girl and My Girl 2 are both moving films to cherish for y
K. G. Parsons | Minnesota USA | 06/29/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"My Girl:
The first movie was from 1991, but it takes place in the early seventies. Anna Chlumsky stars in her first movie and does a darn good job playing Vada Sultenfuss, but of course she has already famous stars acting with her: Dan Aykroyd, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Macaulay Culkin.
The movie starts out with Jamie Lee Curtis (Shelly) who is a cosmetician and wants to be hired by Dan Aykroyd (Vada's father) who is the town's mortician. He ends up hiring the sexy woman while Vada spends her summer with the boy next door who happens to be her best friend, Thomas J. played by Macaulay Culkin.
Upset over the death of her mother, and believes it is her fault, Vada is obsessed with death. And because her father and Shelly start dating and he buys her an engagement ring, Vada runs away from home. But she returns home and starts to get along with Shelly. But once she becomes friends with Shelly, her best friend, Thomas J. gets stung by bees and dies in the woods. Not wanting to believe that his death is real, she talks to him while at the funeral as he lies in his coffin. She runs away again but returns to her adult writing class with a poem. Though she may not be an adult, she took this class because she has a crush on the teacher, but she also enjoys writing. This is the poem that she wrote expressing her feelings for Thomas J. who idolized her when they were friends.
Weeping willow with your tears running down
Why do you always weep and frown?
Is it because he loved you one day?
Is it because he could not stay?
On your branches he would swing
Do you long for the happiness that they would bring?
If you found shelter in your shade
If you thought his laughter would never fade
Weeping willow stop your tears
There is something to calm your fears
If you think that as your two forever part
And I know he'll always be in your heart
My Girl 2:
The second movie was from 1994 but was based in the mid seventies. Many of the characters in the second movie were also in the first movie. But there are two newcomers: Austin O'Brien who plays Nick and his mother Rose played by Christine Ebersol.
Vada is given an assignment in her class at school. The assignment is to write about someone you admire and has achieved something, but who you have never met. Vada decides to write about her mother. Because her mother is from Los Angeles, she wants to go to L.A. to find out more about her. Her nervous father is paranoid to let his 13 year-old daughter on a plane to California by herself, but she ends up going and stays with her uncle and his girlfriend and his girlfriend's son, Nick.
Vada and Nick spend their spring break together hoping to find information on Vada's mother. At first they quarrel and don't have much in common, but they start to get along. Vada makes some surprising discoveries about her mother and she learns more about herself. No longer a child, but not quite an adult, its tough being a young girl in the real world, but somehow she manages to find her way. This is the song that her mother sings in a home movie she watches and the same song she sings to her newborn baby brother.
"SMILE"
Smile though your heart is aching
Smile even though it's breaking
Although a tear
Maybe ever so near
That's the time you must keep on trying
Smile what's the use of crying
You'll find that life is still worthwhile
If you just smile
Vada ended up getting an A+ on her report and this is what she found out about her mother. "She may not have her footprints in the cement, but she definitely left her imprint on the world. And I told him (her teacher) that even though it sounds conceded, her greatest achievement was me."
Both movies are great to watch over and over again. These movies I would say are for 8-14 year-olds, but I think many people of all ages would enjoy watching them.
P.S.
Sorry if I gave away the ending for both movies, but it's still worth seeing.
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